The Reason We Are Here

Even though the weather is about perfect, the flat is cute, the nature incredible, and the office is modern and comfortable... the real reason that we left employment, sold our home and said goodbye to our family for a while, was to come to Africa to assist the young people here. Through the marvelous program of the Perpetual Education Fund, we are able to administer low-low interest loans to ambitious, needy, mostly black, young adults... and the program is bearing wonderful results. The PEF has been available for 4 years in South Africa, and below you will meet some of the recipients and graduates. Our role here is to expand the program here in ZA (currently 837 students) and to help establish PEF in other countries in the southern half of the continent of Africa.

Come meet these great kids!

This is Reenie at her desk with her 'computer trainer' Thabo Motaung, who helps in the office part time and is going to school on a PEF loan to become Microsoft cetified and achieve a certificate in IT.





This is my trusted counterpart in the office, also named Thabo (which means joy in Zulu) last name Lebathoa. He grew up in Johannesburg during apartheid but was originally from Botswana. He is 33, has degrees in law and business and is full time with us in the office to administer much of the day to day detail of the finance end of things. Jim is grateful for his knowledge of the country, the schools and the banks.




This is Caliphonia Jefange Mnisi. She works in our travel office at the Area office making the arrangements for our travel in and out of South Africa (ZA). She is a PEF graduate from Bedfordview who is now married and expecting her second baby. Her husband is on the PEF program and they hope to buy a house closer to Jo-burg someday. She takes two buses and a taxi every morning, requiring 60 minutes to get to the office. She is always there by 7:30 am. The same routine follows at the end of her day.





Currently in the second year of a three year marketing program, Xolani Lubisi is recently engaged to be married and serving part time in the office. He is from Cape Town, which you can often tell by his first name beginning with an X. The language is Xosa, which you may recall is the native language of Nelson Mandella. Xolani's name is pronounced by clicking the tongue inside the cheek while saying -olani. Quite something to try and get used to. Great guy with a great smile.





Here is Didier, pointing to his home city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He came to ZA on a temporary visa to begin a PEF program in survey engineering. He has completed the first year of three. The program is very similar to a civil engineering degree. We hope to open the PEF program by June in the DRC, so that many of these folks can stay at home and study in Kinshasa. The holdup has been the banking end. You just would not believe the state of banking in some of these developing nations and people do not generally use banks because they do not have checking, savings and VISA/MC's. We are attempting to find banks that are affiliated with England, Begium or France. They at least have some reserves and some stability. Big challenges when trying to provide big opportunities.




Here are three lovely ladies! From the left is Kagiso Segkatlo who is taking communications courses hoping to get into a TV job, then is Khanysila Sibanyango, a recent book-keeping /accounting graduate who has now gotten a job with a large insurance company. She was making R500/month before her schooling (about $50) and now she earns approx R3000/month (about $300). This is very good earnings for a young person here in ZA. It is part of the PEF program to assist in getting 'better work' following the education. We are mostly successful with this (about 92%) but unemployment is high here, inflation is running at 14%, and I'm sure you in the US are all aware of the global economic situation. You all know the other "girl".




Here is our 'helper" in the office, Thabo, with his wife Ntuthu (pronounced nTootoo) and their 20 month old Thabile. Thabo's family came to SA from the Kingdom of Lesotho and he served a mission for the church in Durban, and his wife is from Cape Town and served a mission in Kenya. As mentioned, Thabo is a PEF student and comes 45 minutes by bus each day to the office and school. They live in Protea Glen, which is one of the many sections of Soweto. Their home is VERY humble by any standards, but they are determined to improve their lot. He is in the Elder's Quorum Presidency and she is the YW President in the Protea Glen Ward. We attended there last Sunday and it was really hot and very, very friendly.




If any of you have studied economics, you may be familiar with the term 'hyper-inflation'. It's what Germany felt in the 20's and 30's, and it is what Zimbabwe is undergoing right now. Here is a photo of someone purchasing three eggs at a price of one hundred billion Zimbabwe dollars. The inflation factor is currently at 250% per month. The money is basically worthless but the government keeps printing higher denominations so it's a joke. However, the people are in a jam because they are paid in this worthless currency and it buys little. They mostly trade and barter now. Sadly, we have had to suspend PEF there because the instructors in the schools have stopped coming to classes, the schools have vitually shut down and the students are trying to repay the loans in their nations currency, only to have worthless dollars to use. What was a $5 payment six months ago, now requires hundreds of millions and to us the exchange amounts to about 30 cents. As a result of this situation in Zimbabwe, there is quite an influx of their people into ZA. We have several in PEF already.





Reenie with Zinhle Masilela, who is a graduate of PEF and is now working in the office in the finance department.




Here is Tafadzwa Tanjani (TJ), with his wife, Brenda. He is from Zimbabwe studying marketing and she is from Cape Town and works as a procurment clerk. Really fun and active young couple.




The students will often come into our office, even once they have gotten their loans approved and are studying, just to check on things or to bring us in their grades. Here is one of our stop in students, Tetslive Lobuongelo (far right). He is very bright and studying engineering at UNISA (University of South Africa). He lives in a tiny flat in Pretoria (soon to be renamed Tswane) with his brother and two other students from their home country of DRC. They all came from a village there that had no electricity, they all served FTM's in the DRC and are now getting educated through PEF in ZA, and all hope to return to help build up the home country and the church there.




This is Vuyokazi Kisten (Marsha). She is our receptionist at the Area Offices. She is really a sweet girl who grew up in Kwa-Zulu Natal, an area which is all Zulu people next to Swaziland. She is married to an "Asian", which over here is anyone with roots from India. Her husband is half East Indian and half Zulu. She is an absolute joy to be around and does an amazing job of keeping guests, appointments and phone calls directed for all 75 people who work in the Africa Southeast Area Office complex.


This is only the beginning. So far, in our first month, we have assisted is processing PEF applications for 31 students with many, many more to come. Reenie and I are headed off to Botswana tomorrow. We hope you will stay tuned to our blog and please leave comments. We love hearing from you however lengthy or brief.


Happy New Year to all we know and miss.

Merry Christmas from Africa

Even though there are no Christmas trees here in SA, and this is officially the first day of Summer here, (81 degrees) we want to let you know that we are observing the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all the same. Since we needed to get into the season just a bit, we went to an African market last week and bought a hand carved ebony nativity from a carver who was from Zimbabwe. If you are not aware of the sadness in Zimbabwe, you must read up. Anyway, this pretty nativity serves our little flat very well. Throw in a little garland and we are ready for the season. Really and truly, we want you all to know that with or without the usual traditions and trappings of the season, Christ is in our heart and his message truly was the inspiration for our coming to Africa to assist in this great work. (more on the work in our next posting...)

Merry Christmas to you all!

This is an incedible land. For the next few moments we would like to share with you an experience we had yesterday at the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve located on 1400 acres within the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. It is a wonderful way to see nature up close, but in its own habitat. The new Olympus camera with the 18X optical zoom lens helped considerably. You drive slowly through the reserve, but DO NOT get out of your car. I repeat, you DO NOT get out of the car. You are permitted to open the windows of your vehicle 33%, but do so at your own risk. Folks have had tires chewed, bumpers knocked off by Rhino's and last year a Japanese tourist got out of his car for that "perfect shot" and was killed AND eaten by a pride of lions. We played by the rules and had a fantastic day. Please remember that if you want to see enlarged versions of any of the photos, just double click the picture and 'voila!'...big!

Genesis: Chaper One

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth...and God said let the earth bring forth the grasses...and God said let the earth bring forth the living creatures...and God made the beasts of the earth...and every living thing...and God saw that it was good..."

A mother Warthog and her four babies...remember that Spring has just ended and the animal kingdom is alive with offspring! Even the ugliest of animals has cute babies.

A handsome male Sable Antelope keeping a wary eye out. He stood up and was about six feet to his ears, but added another 24" with his horns.

This endangered species is called the Wild Dog. There are only about 4000 left in the world. These three are feasting on the carcass of what probably was a Springbuck. Their sound was nothing like the bark of a dog however, but more of a high pitched squeel and they had very much of the 'pack mentality'.

This is a female Cape Buffalo that was not happy with us as we were being observed as a threat to her young. We were convinced by her size and eyebrows, and we quickly drove on.

Here is a family of Gemsbock catching the cool shade of the Kraal Spike Thorn tree. They are strikingly beautiful and their horns grow up to 4 feet on both the male and female. I have bought 'biltong' at the market, which is like jerky from this animal, and it is very good.

Not much description needed here. A female Ostrich that has laid 15-20 eggs somewhere nearby, each weighing 3lbs and she can really run. You can't help but laugh when you see them take off running.

There are three prides of White Lions on the reserve. They are a very scarce type of lion, although not albino. They are the result of a recessive gene and have blue eyes. They are really a beautiful animal. Here they are tearing into an aged Rhino on the grassy plains of the Krugersdorp area in the Gauteng province of South Africa.

One of my favorite shots of the day. This is a female Cheetah, also quite endangered, and she is catching some shade during the mid day sun.

...and this is one of the juvenile males that is not putting out the welcome mat for us!

This is a shot of a female White Rhinoceros on the move. They have two prominant horns on their face and can weigh up to 2300kg (for you Americans, that's about 6000 lbs). They are very territorial and are not to be treated as big, fat and slow!

This, of course, is a pair of beautiful Hartmann Zebras. Comouflage is not their strength. They are concerned as well, as there were several of their young nearby, but even though they all have stripes, no two are ever exactly the same, so Mom can easily tell her own from the rest. (they could anyway)

This is also one of my favorites. In six hours of shooting 165 photos it's hard to pick one favorite picture since the animals were so plentiful and so very photogenic, however this magestic male Brown Lion was a real 'poser'. He got up from his laying down position, stood as though he were really "the king", gave me a wonderful 5 second side shot, and then he stared us down (see picture below) as if to say..... 'get going!'

"Don't make me chew up your Firestone's!"

Clearly one of the high-lites for Reenie was to go to the baby animal creche and for a small fee, she got to play with the 1-3 month old baby lions and black leopards. Here is Reenie rubbing the nose of this 3 month old female brown lion and she got it so relaxed, I believe it went to sleep. They are already enjoying a diet of red meat, so there is a trained volunteer nearby, should these furry little fuzzballs decide that an afternoon snack of your finger would be tasty.

Here is the happy Reenie with the two identical twin sisters.

Merry Christmas Reenie...

We'll gradually post more of the pictures we took at the game park, but for now we'll just say

Merry Christmas to all. We love you and miss you.

Our New Home-Africa

Reenie on the grounds of the Johannesburg Temple. Our office is on the same compound and we are literally a 5 minute walk from our office to being in the temple. It is a beautiful building which meets the needs of members from Somalia/Kenya all the way down to Jo-burg/CapeTown.

This is our gold/green Nissan Tiida. It gets about 50 miles/gallon and petrol costs us about $3.50/gallon. Notice the steering wheel on the right side. We are doing very well with driving on the left. Only a few 'close calls'. The church intentionally buys ugly cars so they will be less attractive to the carjackers. We keep nothing in the front or back seats and everthing in the 'boot' (trunk) because if you are seen to have something of value you are put at risk of a 'smash and grab'. We are following the rules!

This is a shot of the outside of our flat. We are the bottom unit with the double doors and the patio looking out on a beautiful English garden. It is small but quite comfortable. The flats are within a walled compound and a security guard is there to open the gate 24/7. Very safe.

Here is a view from our patio looking out at the courtyard. Beautiful looking and smelling, as well as a home to at least 13 varieties of birds (so far), including the African Yellow Weaver. (more on them later). The birds start singing at 4:30-4:45 AM.

This is a view looking from the kitchen out the patio doors. Our desk to the left where we will be 'Skyping' with family and friends now that we have a good internet connection in the flat.

Our little kitchen- which contains the fridge, sink, washing machine, dryer, range, stove and microwave. No wasted space for sure, but Reenie has made it home and she has cooked up some great food already. Food shopping is quite different here. People shop frequently due to the size of the fridge, regular power outages and limited space for storing much. The fresh fruits and veggies are very nice. Eating out is also very affordable with a nice dinner for 2 costing only about $10-12 with the current rate of exchange.

One more view of the gardens. We have lemon trees with fruit for the picking along with herbs of every sort and several varieties of roses and other native plants.

The work in the office goes better everyday as we learn our duties and the processes that are required. It is really quite involved as we deal with so many different countries and many languages. Three of our countries speak French, two speak Portuguese, eight speak English and all of the students have VERY strong accents, since they speak a tribal tongue at home. Any one of 210 tribal tongues! The young people are excited about the opportunities we can afford them. They are a very bright lot of folks. I am really impressed! They must be worthy, ambitious and needy, and there are a lot who will qualify.

We will be going to the country of Botswana next week to help get the PEF established there. After the first of the year, which amazingly is only three weeks away, we will travel to the Kingdoms of Lethoto and Swaziland and then in February we have a trip planned to Windhoek, Namibia. We hope to get the program available in Zambia and the DRC by June. The rest of the time we will spend in South Africa where the PEF program is going strong.

We are grateful for your thoughts, prayers and all who helped make Reenie's birthday a special one. With all of the turmoil in the world, we are very happy to be here doing what we are doing.

All the best...

Mission Training Complete!

(Saying goodbye to Jim's parents for a while.)

The last two weeks have been a most wonderful experience for us. Although we had to say goodbye to Pennsylvania family,(Brittney's family and Brian's family), including Jim's parents, we flew from PA on Nov 10th, then landed in Salt Lake City, drove to Boise, ID that same day, visited Brigham and Brielle's family on Tues. and Wed and by Wed PM were back in SLC preparing for our training.

(World Class Training Facility.)

We have had great training, and what has made it so is the unbelievable spirit that these people have about the gospel, about life and about helping their fellow man change their lives for the good. We truly felt as though we were in the city of Enoch while at the Missionary Training Center, since everyone seemed of one heart in their purpose, and that purpose was to bring souls to Christ. Whether by Proselyting, Humanitarian or Educational efforts...all were focused on making life better for those on this planet and it felt good, really good.

(The "here's where I'm going" board.)

There are 57 languages being taught here, the most of any educational facility in the world and of our group of "Senior Missionaries" we had folks going to Ireland, Whales, Tonga, Hawaii, Africa, Brazil, Cambodia, Finland, New Zealand, Australia and Mongolia.

(Jim and Reenie with Joseph and Alysin Boone.)

Our good friends Joseph and Alysin Boone, who we knew from their days at Dover Air Force Base, are in charge of this facility of 2,300 missionaries. Since Jim used to do a lot of music with Alysin in the old days, she asked if he would sing at the Sunday night fireside for an audience of a mere 2300. I agreed and rehearsed briefly with two outstanding young missionaries, Elder Scott Jackson (piano-going to Mexico) and Sister Michele Johnson (Cello-going to Belgium), both great musicians. Through this beautiful song, we were able to bring a great feeling to the meeting and many made known their appreciation afterwards. Here is a video link of the performance if you wish to view it: "Come, Thou Fount"

We are having Thanksgiving dinner with Brinns family today and will be joined again by Brielle's group for a day of visiting tomorrow, before we leave on Saturday morning. It is still a bit surreal to think that when we land on Monday morning we will be in a new home for 18 months and that home will be Africa.

Also a footnote...we were briefed by the church security people (one former foreign diplomat and one FBI) and they told us to avoid political discussions of any sort while in Africa, whether in a restaurant, on the phone or in emails. They advised us to just assume someone is listening or intercepting, whether it was the case or not, so we will be avoiding asking or expressing info of a political nature while we are away. Surely we will have much to catch up on when we return.

We love you all and will miss you during our brief sojourn, but we know more than ever that we will be very productive in helping those in the Africa Southeast area.

Redgate Cabin

Those of you reading this, who know us well, will know that we just love it at our cabin. It has been a great place for us to work off life's stress', to have large family get-togethers and a wonderful place to wrap yourself up in nature. We had the chance to go to the cabin with my brother Rich and his wife Annette for one last trip before our mission to Africa, and it was bitter sweet for sure. We had a great time as Mother Nature cooperated quite nicely and we also had the chance to share many laughs and memories. We accomplished the exterior and interior winterizing process, since Brittney's husband Dan won't be back from Iraq until January, and the duty would have fallen to him. We know that family and friends will enjoy "Redgate" while we're gone, and that makes us very happy! We just ask that as those big 4 pound bass keep getting bigger, that you please leave a few for us to catch in the Fall of 2010.

The famous "Redgate"

"Chippy"

Nature's morning lace

The fence from the 'December to remember'

the boathouse... which is so much more

The placid side of Redgate pond

The long and winding road

Great place, fond memories and much to look forward to.

Decompression...

Knowing that we were going to be retiring and packing and selling and relocating all before 10/3, we decided a while back to plan a trip to the Outer Banks of NC, right after all the chaos, so we could 'decompress' a little from the intensity of it all.

We were fortunate to stay at a place right on the ocean and as you can see we had the beach to ourselves. We did buy a new camera to take with us on our mission to Africa, so this trip gave us a great opportunity to get used to it and see what it can do. The camera is great, (Olympus SP-56OUZ) even in the hands of amateurs, and with the success we have had here, we are really looking forward to using it with the wildlife in Africa. We had several very intimate encounters with the birds on the banks and they were most considerate subjects.



A very curious male 'laughing gull' that felt right at home in front of the camera. Double clicking the photos will open them to screen size. Give it a go... and view the amazing detail afforded by modern technology.

We went to a movie one evening and had popcorn left over, so since there were no other folks on the beach to complain, we decided to feed the leftover popcorn to the birds. Here is a shot of one picking the pc out of the air with incredible agility!

A mainstay of the Outer Banks beaches are the ghost crabs. They come out at night and cover the beach to scavenge whatever the tide delivers them and they keep the beach remarkably clean. Our kids used to love running the beach late at night with a flashlight, and seeing hundreds of them scampering at the tide line.This is a shot in total darkness of a 5" male ghost crab using the pop-up flash.



This is the bird that effortlessly sailed in to get some of the popcorn that Reenie was generously providing and as he flew over her head he pooped right on her back...a big liquid wet white poop about 4" long on the top she had hoped to wear to dinner. Ahhh...to be among nature

One of the great advantages of being here at this time of year is the solitude. We brought along missionary prep material, CES prep material and Perpetual Education Fund reading as well as the 23 page handbook for missionary couples serving in the Africa Southeast Area. We have enjoyed hours of uninterrupted study and will be the better for it. This was a much needed and very much enjoyed holiday from all schedules and routines.

The next beach that we walk on to admire the surf and sand will probably be the Indian Ocean.